From Square One
by Fishy716
Summary: He never liked his home, going through the motions with the same routine day after day. Wanting to find a purpose, Skipper sets off to find his own life of adventure.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE:**

Antarctica. Always cold, always a wasteland of white flurries that stretched on for miles. Skipper hated it. Sure it was his homeland, but he really couldn't stand his current lifestyle. He really couldn't tell if the scenery was the worst, or if it was the way his colony acted. They were all scared-y cats and lived their days doing the same thing. Every single day. The routine was taking its toll on Skipper, he couldn't handle doing the EXACT same thing day in and out. He wanted action, adventure, to DO something with his life. His parents were the same as the rest of them. In a way, he couldn't stand them. Of course he loved them, but he sometimes wondered why he was so different. Why was he the only one that wanted to have a purpose in life? Was it odd to have purpose? Maybe he would never know, or at least he wouldn't if he stayed here for the rest of his life. He wanted nothing more than to leave, find a new life. One that he could call his own and not his colony's'.

* * *

Nightfall couldn't have come sooner that day. Skipper had packed any of his possessions that he deemed sentimental or necessary of joining his travel. And even what he had wasn't much. Most of what he gathered were food rations in some human made object his father had. He wouldn't mind if he took it would he? He never seemed to use it anyhow. He once called it a 'dufflebag' but Skipper didn't care what it was called, he just knew it was efficient for carrying his rations. He had no idea how long he would have to travel before he ran into anything other than the wasteland. But he was determined to carry out. And with that, Skipper headed out the igloo he and his parents live in, or he once lived in. He only got about five steps out the door before he heard a voice. "Skipper?"

He turned around to see his father standing in the doorway with a slight pained expression on his face. "Uh, hi Dad. I-I was just coming out to get some fresh air." He breathed in deeply the robust icy air. He coughed slightly from the bitter cold, "Yeah, fresh air. Nothing like it, especially right here."

Skipper's father sighed with his facial expression unchanging. "You don't have to lie to me Skips, I know very well what you were up to. You were planning on running away."

Skipper couldn't believe this. His father had caught onto his plan of leaving. Now it would be harder for him to part or even leave with his father in his way, "Y-you knew...How long?"

"Your mother and I had expected this for a couple months now, we just never thought it would be so soon in your life."

Skipper held a thoughtful expression while speaking, "You knew? And yet you don't seem as if you are holding me back. Why?"

To Skipper's surprise, his father smiled slightly, "That's because I'm not. We prepared ourselves for this, as we knew you'd want to leave Antarctica to do bigger and better things. In all honesty, your mother and I had our share of adventures before we came here. It'd be wrong for us to deprive you of your own adventures."

When his father said his parents had 'adventures', he seemed thoroughly confused. He always thought that every penguin here, including his parents never did anything with their lives, past and present. "What do you mean, your 'own adventures?"

"Skipper, I want to give you something before you leave, and I want to you wear it proudly." Skipper's father came over to him and came to his level. With this action, he placed some type of pendant on Skipper's neck, dangling from a string before standing at his full height once more. "Whether you believe me or not, your mother and I were once in the military. And this pendant, was the very pendant I received when I was promoted to the Commanding Officer of my squad. I want you to wear it and think of us whenever you can."

Skipper couldn't let go of the star-shaped pendant from his flippers. It was so shiny, almost as if it were new, or perhaps that his father took very good care of it. He almost whispered to himself, "The-the military…? My parents were in the military…." He looked at his father with tears squeezing out of the sides of his eyes, right before he quickly rubbed them away with his flipper. "I want to make you proud Dad."

His father's smile grew as he said, "You already have Skipper. And with everything you do, you'll make me even prouder. Now off you go, you better get going if you're going to go anywhere without your mother delaying you for another hour, or perhaps longer."

With that, Skipper hugged his father. After parting, he began to walk forward after taking one final glance to him, to his home, to what he was leaving behind. He knew what he wanted to do with his life now. He wanted to become like his parents, to become a member of the military.

* * *

Heyo, this is my first submitted fanfiction ^^ I don't find myself to be the best writer but I have been encouraged my multiple people to submit some of my stories/one shots. So hopefully the prologue is okay and that the story progresses well x3 And I may post a couple other things here later. Thanks much for reading!


	2. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1: **

How many days had passed? It was hard to tell, especially with the minimal amount of sunlight he had. From the rations he had left and the amount of times he had to take refuge from sleep overtaking his body, he presumed it to be around five days. Then again, he wasn't certain. And once again he was catching his breath behind a snow drift, formulating where he was going. What was he thinking the other day? Did he really think he'd leave and immediately find what he was looking for? If he really wanted to join the military, he should have thought this further through. He had no idea where he would find anyone in the service nor where a base would be set up, especially on this gigantic block of ice.

Skipper was nodding off, although trying not to let sleep deprivation take advantage of him. He fought this battle for another five minutes before a shrill cry cut through the air. Skipper was no longer fighting sleep, adrenaline pumping through his system. Who or what made that noise, and why? He poked his head slowly out from the protection of his snow drift and caught sight of three penguins squaring off against a…was that a leopard seal? Skipper couldn't believe this, why would these penguins pick a fight with one of those? He noticed that two of these penguins appeared to be similar to his age and were being shielded behind a much larger penguin. What was odd to Skipper was this penguin was unfamiliar to him. No, not in a 'he is a stranger' way, but in a 'he doesn't look like any penguin I've ever seen before' way. The penguin had strange yellow feathers on its head that were pointed in an upright direction and it weirded Skipper out a little. Nonetheless, these penguins were taking on a suicidal mission. Taking on a leopard seal was not something a sane penguin would do.

He was snapped out of his musings and observations when he heard the larger penguin shout, "Johnson, get back here! I'm being serious, this isn't part of the training exercise!" One of the smaller penguins was rushing right at the seal! Did he not have any common sense at all? Skipper had to do something, even if that meant revealing himself to the unfamiliar penguins. Darting out as fast as he could, he ran toward the seal and it's opponent. He had to admit, this little penguin was fast and was avoiding the seal's razor sharp teeth with great ease, jabbing it here and there with his flippers. This really did no damage to the seal other than tick it off, but the young penguin could obviously not see this. But one wrong move and he would be food for this giant in seconds. In a quick instant, Skipper tackled the kid as they slid about ten feet away from the original battle.

The kid was less than thrilled. "What is wrong with you? I had it right where I wanted it! I was doing just fine, so why did you tackle me?"

"Hey, I may have just saved your life! Why would you think you could handle a full grown leopard seal? Have you gone crazy?"

The two bantered back and forth as the other two penguins looked in horror as the leopard seal scooted its way toward them. The elder penguin took the younger one by his shoulder and looked into his eyes, "Manfredi, you need to grab Johnson and whoever that other kid is, and get out of here. I'll hold off the seal as long as I possibly can. Now go!"

"But Commander-"

"That was an ORDER soldier! I don't want insubordination from you, I want results! Now get to it!" With that, the elder penguin rushed forward, closing in on the seal. Manfredi on the other hand panicked. He wasn't prepared for this. He didn't want to abandon his commander, nor did he want to become a victim in the crossfire of Johnson's verbal onslaught. But he didn't have to as Johnson and Skipper immediately stopped arguing as the elder penguin gave the seal a roundhouse kick. Manfredi took this chance to run over to them. "Johnson, Commander Haze ordered us to fall back to base. We need to get going!"

Johnson seemed appalled by this idea and shot Manfredi a scowl, "You expect us to leave him? I don't care if he ordered us to leave. That'd be breaking the penguin credo."

Skipper seemed intrigued by this slight exchange. Commander? Fall back to base? Did this mean that these penguins were in the military, were they the key to his goal? And a credo. He was unfamiliar with this 'penguin credo' of which they spoke. His parents never told him of a credo for penguins.

Manfredi looked down ashamed, "Never Swim Alone. But what can we do, we're just two lowly privates?"

"You have me too." Both the privates looked toward Skipper with eyebrows raised. They seemed unconvinced as they eyed him. But just beyond them, he could see their superior wearing out, his energy running on low. That was when he spotted it. Skipper lived here long enough to know when he saw thin ice. About five feet behind the ensuing battle was a patch of thin ice. Not thin enough for a penguin to fall through, but defiantly a seal. "Guys, we have to push that seal back. There's thin ice a bit behind it."

Johnson was still extremely skeptical about this kid, "You sure about that? We're not risking this operation on a guess." With this Skipper nodded his head once with utmost confidence. "Okay fine, let's do it. Manfredi, take the left flank. I'll take the center, and….um," pointing to Skipper, he said, "And you, whatever your name is, take the right flank….you know which way is right, yes?"

"You think I'm a hatchling or something? Of course I know which way is right!" As Skipper spoke he had already began to rush forward, expecting the Manfredi and Johnson to follow with their flanks.

As the three young penguins got closer, Commander Haze noticed them in his peripheral vision and shouted, "I thought I told you to fall back to base? Are you even listening to me?" But the penguins ignored and focused on their plan. Each began to shove back the predator towards the thin ice. One little penguin may not have been able to do anything but the three of them combined were pushing the seal back inches at a time, the ice providing a slippery surface to slide it back. They were getting exhausted but they knew they were so close. With a looks of determination on each of their faces, the nodded to one another to give one final kick. The seal slid back onto the thin ice and a loud cracking sound was heard. Skipper smirked as he knew what happened next. *_SPLASH*_The leopard seal fell through the ice and didn't resurface. He figured it gave up on its prey and swam away. The three young penguins high fived one another in the adrenaline rush of their victory, forgetting a now pissed off Commander.

"Ahem." The three turned toward the aggravated sound of Commander Haze, standing with his flippers crossed and eyes narrowed. "I believe I told you, Manfredi, to gather Johnson and shortstop over here and head back to base. I distinctly don't remember telling you to fight off a leopard seal. And you Johnson, I told you this was not part of the training exercise. This was real danger here!" Manfredi and Johnson looked embarrassingly away as they knew some terrible punishment was to ensue. "_Sigh, _But then again, you took on an ADULT leopard seal and didn't get torn to shreds, and most importantly, you used teamwork. I've been trying to teach you two that for weeks now!" He turned toward Skipper, "And you, shortstop, you didn't even know who we were and yet you helped?"

"Um, yeah. It just seemed wrong to walk away from it…Um, If you don't mind my asking, are you in the military by chance?" Skipper almost asked this daringly, hoping so much that the answer would be some form of yes.

A moment passed before the superior answered, staring down Skipper in the process, "Indeed. I am Commander Haze, and these two numbskulls are Privates Manfredi and Johnson. We are all members of the APC: Antarctic Penguin Militia."

* * *

I want to thank everyone for the kind words and reviews, as well as the watches and favorites x3 It really makes me feel a little better about writing. So I hope this story is heading in a positive direction plot and story wise. And I'll be out of town for the next couple days, and hopefully I can upload another chapter when I get back. Thanks once again to everyone! 3


End file.
